Akash – Flite Sheffield Profile

Mainly to broaden my interest in business. I love going to the club to be honest – it’s helped me a lot. My favourite thing has to be the people; everyone is so friendly. I like the fact that I’m surrounded by other young people like me that are interested in business and also have great hobbies.

How did you get into Free-running?

I started off by watching a few videos on Youtube. I thought I’d give it a try, so I joined a team, and it took off from there. We’re now sponsored and our online videos regularly get thousands of viewers.

Why has the sport become so popular?

I think it’s mainly because of sharing sites like Youtube, because you can record videos and put them up straight away for everyone to see.

How do you use sites like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.?

You have to be careful what you say online. If you’ve got a business, keep it professional because everybody can see what you’re writing. If you put up a stupid status or tweet, you’ll look like an idiot and ruin what you’ve already achieved.

Why are you interested in business?

Business gives you good life skills because it involves talking to people, competing, and learning about things happening around you. The key for me is that I enjoy it – the fact that you can have fun and earn money makes it a great way to experience life.

How do you manage to do Free-running and Business as well as school work?

Through free-running we’ve got an online following, and found a multi-national company who pay us to do their videos. By linking all three I’ve come up with a compromise that generates profit and is better than doing each separately. You can learn the theory of business but when you’re actually working with commercial sponsors, it becomes real.

The experience has taught me a lot about marketing and how to use the internet to interact with people. If people don’t like what we’re doing, we’ve learnt to talk to them, understand where they’re coming from, and work out something to suit both sides. We’ve also learnt to collect positive feedback.

What have you learnt from making mistakes?

I think people should embrace mistakes. It sounds stupid, but mistakes help you. At first, I was too scared to back-flip and I used to hurt myself a lot, but then one of the older free-runners taught me to learn from each mistake, and that changed my thinking & helped me realise that if you take a risk and fail, that’s fine. It’s the same in business; taking risks and being able to evaluate things helps you become a better person.

Is it important to have good role models?

I think good role models are extremely important! A good role model is someone who has good morals and isn’t negative towards people. The nicer you are, the better other people around you will feel. So yeah, be the nice guy or girl, follow good role models, and become a good role model. And when you succeed in business you can share your experiences with the younger generation.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I like helping people, so I’d like to try teaching gymnastics using an advert-based business model like Youtube’s to make money without charging my customers. Coming to the BiGYEC has broadened my future by making me aware of what else is out there. So I’d recommend it whether you know what you want to do in the future or not.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

If you’ve got a good business idea, plan it out first – figure out how you’re going to do it, go to clubs like the BiGYEC, meet the right people, study business etc. And remember – Business is fun, and nothing like what you see on the apprentice! What you’re like as a person counts more than how old you are. I think by far the most important skill to learn is how to deal with people because in business you have to adapt to peoples’ needs. Everything else comes after that.